Metal Casting

[Blue88Coupe]

I cast my first piece of aluminum earlier today. Hopefully by the end of the weekend I will have a good grasp on building molds and patterns.

Here's the furnace and my first aluminum "ignot." This was poured from a small scrap of aluminum and two coke cans.

Furnace:


Cruicible with some aluminum scraps (left overs from welding class, one 1" strip was used in addition to the coke cans to pour the ignot)


Small charcoal fire to begin curing process for the freshly made furnace:


Here i've hooked up the air blast ( aka hair dryer ) to bring the temps up:


This is after an hour of burning charcoal with no lid and no air blast, then 20 minutes of air blast, then I dropped in the cruicible with the aluminum and this is about 10 minutes into that.


About 10 minutes went by and I put in two aluminum cans, 10 minutes later I poured:


Final product:


Hopefully over the weekend i'll cast something much more useful. And now that the furnace has been ran and cured it shouldnt take more than 20 - 30 minutes from a cold furnace to pouring aluminum.

[Thehead]

That is cool!

[NoClassic]

Good Start.

What kind of mold making process do you plan on trying first?

[Darren M]

That's pretty cool. As I'm sure you're aware, there's a slew of internet information out there within the home casting community. I've always wanted to get into casting but just haven't had the time. I too am interested in your planned molding process. The foam relief in sand looks pretty freak'n cool. I forget who it was but I sold a set of used 99 aluminum heads to a board member years ago, he was getting into casting. Cool stuff!

[Blue88Coupe]

Good Start.

What kind of mold making process do you plan on trying first?

I'm doing green sand molds right now.

I've been reading a ton on backyardmetalcasting.com I've done a few more pours but nothing successful yet. I've got everything except a propane regulator to switch from charcoal to propane, hopefully I can get that sorted out today. I burned through a 1/8"th steel crucible I built playing with charcoal the other day I left the furnace out to cool night before last and it rained which completely ruined my lid so I'm redoing that today.

The main goal of this is to get a good grasp on casting aluminum and try to build david gingerys metal lathe. I've got a ton of things I want to machine with a lathe.

Heres a picture of a pair of crucibles, my tongs and poker I made:


Some aluminum strips and crucible:


Green sand mold that was too wet which caused steam pockets. I had run out of mixed sand before I could finish the cope so I just went with an open face mold to get some melt and pour time in:


Heres what I call a "spark diverter" I build so that when the charcoal bricks crumble and spray sparks in the air they dont go high enough to alert the neighbors.


Hot crucible:


toasted crucible:

[Darren M]

I think I have an extra propane regulator laying around somewhere. If you're willing to make the drive to Mansfield you can have it.

[Blue88Coupe]

I think I have an extra propane regulator laying around somewhere. If you're willing to make the drive to Mansfield you can have it.

Is it adjustable? I picked up a non adjustable earlier, dont know how well its gonna work yet. If I cant find an adjustable in the next few days i'll just order one online. Heres the setup, minus the cutting and drilling of the burner tube:

[Darren M]

If I still have it, it would be off an old grill we threw out. IS that the kind you're looking for?

[Blue88Coupe]

If I still have it, it would be off an old grill we threw out. IS that the kind you're looking for?

nah thats what I have, a flat non adjustable pancake type.

[Darren M]

Hmmmm.... What about an Oxy/Propane torch setup? I suppose you could use just the propane side. That one may cost ya a case of beer or something though.

[Blue88Coupe]

Hmmmm.... What about an Oxy/Propane torch setup? I suppose you could use just the propane side. That one may cost ya a case of beer or something though.

I was going to use my argon setup but i read that propane will eat the seals out. I havent done the research for oxygen or acetene. I doubt they're interchangeable though.

[NoClassic]

It looks like you are progressing pretty quickly.

The only method we have done is burnout with silica sand and plaster as our investment. Its sensitive to mix ratios and we often end up with a good amount of flashing to remove because of cracking during burnout. A few people have had good success with foam burn out. Just have to be careful because many of those foams put off some nasty fumes when vaporized.

We are getting ceramic shell within the year so that should make things a bit cleaner with a better end result.

Here is the last silicon bronze piece. Balsa, Plastic, and wax burnt out and then TIG welded the components together.



Another balsa burnout but in aluminum.

[Darren M]

I was going to use my argon setup but i read that propane will eat the seals out. I havent done the research for oxygen or acetene. I doubt they're interchangeable though.

I have a purpose specific oxy/propane setup. I don't know about seals as this is a cutting/brazing torch

[Blue88Coupe]

It looks like you are progressing pretty quickly.

The only method we have done is burnout with silica sand and plaster as our investment. Its sensitive to mix ratios and we often end up with a good amount of flashing to remove because of cracking during burnout. A few people have had good success with foam burn out. Just have to be careful because many of those foams put off some nasty fumes when vaporized.

We are getting ceramic shell within the year so that should make things a bit cleaner with a better end result.

Here is the last silicon bronze piece. Balsa, Plastic, and wax burnt out and then TIG welded the components together.



Another balsa burnout but in aluminum.

Thats some awesome stuff! I'll have to look into some of the other casting methods.

[Blue88Coupe]

I have a purpose specific oxy/propane setup. I don't know about seals as this is a cutting/brazing torch

The pancake regulator I found has been working perfectly. I dont know what psi im running it at with the cut off valve but its melting aluminum like butter.